This invention relates to the wire-handling art, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for paying-out wire from a horizontally-disposed coil of wire.
It is now conventional in the wire-handling art to take up wire exiting a wire drawing machine or a wire insulating line into a basket which is typically termed a "stem pack." The basket is so named because it comprises an outer cage-like frame having a central core or stem disposed therein around which successive loops or convolutions of the wire are wound as it is loaded into the basket. The central core or stem functions to assure an orderly loading of the wire into the basket, as well as an orderly withdrawal of successive loops of the wire from the stem pack without tangling or kinking during subsequent processing. A typical stem pack is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,362,654, issued Jan. 9, 1968 to H. L. Kitselman.
Not only do the stem packs provide a convenient receptacle for the wire as it is delivered from the coiling devices of wire drawing or insulating apparatus, but they also provide convenient means for storing the wire and transporting the same to other locations in the manufacturing plant where the wire may be further processed, such as to be stranded with other wires to manufacture cable, or brought together with other wires, fillers, and separators and passed through a jacketing extruder wherein a plastic coating compound can be continuously applied thereto in the form of a non-metallic sheath cable.
When the stem packs are utilized as pay-out containers during subsequent processing of the wire, they are disposed with their longitudinal axes extending vertically and the wire is withdrawn overhead therefrom. During this operation the stem facilitates the overhead vertical withdrawal by providing a center guide within the horizontally disposed coil which assures an orderly withdrawal of successive loops of the wire from the coil without tangling or kinking thereof. While such apparatus is satisfactory for relatively low speed withdrawal operations, it has been found that during high speed operation, facilitated by improved production techniques of cable manufacture, the surface quality of the wire, both bare and insulated, can be damaged by coming in contact with the central stems of these conventional stem pack containers. Such damage consists of abrasion, nicks, and general surface deterioration.